904 Quadrupeds. 



pendently of its smaller size, which alone would form no criterion, 

 whereby to judge of its distinctness from the common woodcock, 

 which is well known to vary in size and weight most astonishingly ; 

 it possesses several other characteristics, which at once clearly dis- 

 tinguish it. In the family Scolopacidae generally, the females are 

 not only larger than the males, but also of a darker plumage : the 

 dark shades on the upper part of the back of the common woodcock, 

 for instance, being blacker, and the red of the lower portion of a 

 deeper red in the females than in the males : but in this small variety, 

 the colour of the males is much darker than that of any females of 

 the common sort; in fact, it is known in some parts of the country by 

 the name of the little black cock. It differs also in its flight, by 

 which it may be distinguished before it is brought to the ground by 

 the fowling-piece of the sportsman : whereas the common bird gene- 

 rally springs with a noise which sometimes almost rivals that of the 

 hen pheasant; this bird, on the contrary, rises silently, and flies off 

 in a sort of wavy or zigzag direction, a good deal like a snipe, and 

 with a flap of the wing as noiseless as that of an owl, and indeed 

 I recollect on one occasion, several years ago, when, having killed 

 one, I believed so confidently that I had been shooting at an owl of 

 some rare species, that was to prove to me a prize, that when I 

 picked up my bird I was surprised to find it a woodcock, for- 

 getting, at the moment, the usual peculiar flight of this little black 

 cock. 



I trust that these few observations may be the means of directing 

 the attention of naturalists more forcibly to the subject, and of eliciting 

 a fuller and more complete investigation of a matter, less generally 

 known than the opportunities of almost daily occurrence, which so 

 many possess, would warrant us in expecting should long ago have 

 been fully established. With respect to the hare, it would be de- 

 sirable to ascertain, by a comparison of a sufficient number of indi- 

 vidual specimens of each kind, whether other distinctive marks do 

 not exist between them besides those I have mentioned. A sporting 

 friend of mine is of opinion that the short-legged wood-hare is simply 

 a variety of the other, and that it copulates with it, the produce some- 

 times partaking of the character of one parent, and sometimes of that 

 of the other : but it may be a question whether such is the case, or 

 whether the distinction between them be not of a still more perma- 

 nent character. The habits of animals form no inconsiderable guide 

 to their specific arrangement. The same course should be adopted 

 witli respect to the bush-rabbit. As for the small variety of the wood- 



